KTRK (Houston, Texas) 19 August 03 Residents are upset gator won't be removed from their neighborhood (Chris Adams)
Montgomery County: A gator has residents on edge in one neighborhood. Residents want it gone, but Parks and Wildlife officials refuse to remove it.
When the five foot gator cruises the water at Artesian Lake Estate in Montgomery County, the rest of the wildlife give him his space -- at least if they see him coming first.
Resident James Zumwalt recalled, "Alligator got two geese just below me, went up in a man's backyard and got those two geese."
Zumwalt says his cat is missing and he thinks the gator took that, too. Residents have had gators here before, but this one they say is different. "This time, this gator is a little more aggressive," said Diane Corona. "I've seen the alligator several times, passing through here and going around that point and also heard that it's got two geese."
Gators are native to this area and they're finally making a comeback. Parks and Wildlife says this one stays.
"The alligator was previously listed as a federally protected species," explained Greg Creacy of Texas Parks and Wildlife. "Now that it is recovering, it is no longer federally protected, but it a state protected species."
Residents worry about their own protection.
"It seems like the alligator has more rights than the people that live out here," complained O.W. Stone. "And since this is a privately owned lake, I don't see why we don't have the right to have him trapped and removed."
Resident T.J. Wallace agreed, "I'm not too happy with his residency here. I'd like to see him moved out of here because he kind of cramps your style when you can't let your grandkids just grab their poles and go out fishing without someone being out there with them. And, like I say, we are afraid to let them do that right now."
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HOUSTON CHRONICLE Texas) 19 August 03 Gator can stay in neighborhood lake (Cindy Horswell)
Residents in a subdivision west of Conroe recently noticed some feathers floating on their 25-acre private lake while most of the geese and ducks began to mysteriously disappear, along with two pet cats.
The Artesian Lake Estates Homeowners Association thinks a 5-foot alligator -- which recently moved into the lake and put homeowners' nerves on edge -- is responsible for the missing birds and cats, said Brenda Cook, the association's president.
"We stock that lake with fish and fowl, and it is eating everything we put in there, " said Cook.
She said residents are not only fearful for their pets but also their small children who want to fish and play in the water.
However, Texas Parks and Wildlife officials have refused the association's request to relocate the reptile, which Cook has nicknamed "Mr. Irritation." That's because it does not meet the qualification for being a "public nuisance," said Alan Biggerstaff, an area game warden.
"It's moved into a lake, not far from the San Jacinto River. This is its natural habitat," said Biggerstaff. "It's not in the street or in anybody's yard."
He also said the reptile is small, compared to a 13-foot-4-inch alligator that was removed from Lake Conroe after it began aggressively venturing into people's yards to attack dogs.
"We could remove that one, but it would not be long before another replaced it, " he added.
Greg Creacy, state wildlife biologist, said one key reason that complaints about alligators are increasing across the state is that their natural habitat is slowly being demolished and turned into housing developments.
"Yet we take each complaint seriously and check for human safety. If we think there is a danger, we remove them from the area," said Creacy.
Greg Creacy, state wildlife biologist, said he does not believe the alligator is posing any real threat to Artesian Lake Estates.
Much of the neighborhood residents' fear is based on one fisherman's encounter with the alligator, said both the biologist and game warden.
"The fisherman was fishing from a boat, and the alligator mistook his cork for food. The gator can't see that good and bobbed around it. But once he noticed it didn't have a scent, he went away," Biggerstaff said.
However, the fishermen alone in that aluminum boat believed the alligator was making an aggressive move, said Cook.
Cook said authorities gave the subdivision permission two years ago to have two small alligators in the lake trapped and moved to a refuge.
Meanwhile, Opal Zumwalt, 75, a retired grocery clerk, is convinced the alligator is responsible for the disappearance of her and her neighbor's cats.
"I had my cat, Jill, for 16 years. She would not run off. She liked to go to the lake and walk around the bulkhead, and then eight weeks ago she never came back," she said. "That alligator's out there, and we don't like it."
However, Creacy said nobody in Texas has ever been killed by an alligator, and the state does not have the resources to move all the alligators from the state's waterways.
"There are alligators all around us," said the game warden. "Camp Strake, the Boy Scout camp, has counted 20 of them swimming in their waterways and you can see boys swimming and water skiing out there."
While it is possible the alligator could have attacked the cats, Biggerstaff is doubtful that happened. "I can't see a cat sitting still long enough to be caught," he said.
However, he is investigating another case in nearby Splendora where he might remove an alligator from a small pond near an antique business.
"In this case, the pond owners have been feeding the ducks and the alligator is coming up on the land toward the people. Starting to follow them to their back door," he said.
Meanwhile, Creacy advises Artesian Lake residents to simply maintain a safe distance from the alligator and monitor their pets.
"These reptiles are not the man-eating beasts that some people think," he said.
GATOR ON THE LOOSE
• One key reason that complaints about alligators are increasing is that their natural habitat is slowly being demolished, said Greg Creacy, state wildlife biologist.
• Officials have refused to relocate the reptile because it does not meet the qualification for being a public nuisance. "This is its natural habitat. It's not in the street or in anybody's back yard," said Alan Biggerstaff, an area game warden.
• Artesian Lake residents are advised to maintain a safe distance from the alligator and monitor their pets.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2054865